


Gouging Out Your Strength

by Darkravenwrote



Series: GYWO Bingo [3]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Gen, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-15
Updated: 2016-03-15
Packaged: 2018-05-26 23:46:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6260704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darkravenwrote/pseuds/Darkravenwrote
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>From the moment they meet, Kylo Ren is completely certain Hux is the weakest person he's ever met. </p>
<p>It's boring on the <i>Finalizer</i> , though, so Kylo decides to put him to the test.</p>
<p>For my ‘strong’ tile on GYWO Bingo.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gouging Out Your Strength

**Author's Note:**

> Hmmmm, I could have done a lot more with this but it was so hard to write I gave up a bit.
> 
> It's also my first time posting in this fandom, and I'm literally terrified, so I kind of just wanted to get it over with.
> 
> Let me know what you thought.

Weak.

That's the first thing Kylo thinks about General E Hux the first time they meet in shuttle bay B. A self obsessed bureaucrat drunk on his own power. How the Supreme Leader could see any potential in this arrogant individual is beyond him. But his orders are to ingratiate himself to make the transition here as smooth as possible, which means this isn't a short-term arrangement.

Weak, he thinks again, hidden in some dark corner of the bridge. Watching, always watching. Weak, with his greatcoat worn like armor -- he must be so soft under there. Fallible, disposable, weak. Weak, with his precision and inability to deviate. With his secondary plans that have their own secondary plans, which have backup plans. Hux overthinks everything so much he could never hope for successful spontaneity.

Weak, he thinks, trying not to laugh from behind the safety of his mask as Hux jabs at the sparring bot. His movements are upright and inflexible, a series of military practice strikes honed until they come gracefully. Never once used in a real fight. His good humour causes Kylo to offer sparring tuition. The urge to strangle Hux, once he is lying prone and helpless beneath him, is unbearably strong. It would be so easy to wipe this little weakling from existence.

Weak, he thinks when Hux's anger bubbles and he rages over Kylo's latest destructive amusement. He hisses and spits like an Nabooian garden cat with its ginger fur on end. Kylo saw one once backed into a corner by ill-spirited children acting like Gods, and -- even though it was absolutely defenseless to the bullies teasing it -- it yowled and flashed its sharp little fangs until the bitter, bloody end. Useless and weak. There is a moment -- before Kylo has to say a single word if he doesn't feel like dampening Hux's fire -- at some point in his never ending, senseless babbling when Hux halts. His white teeth grind behind his snarl and his bright, pale eyes glitter malevolently. But Hux is weak, like that garden cat, and he can't do anything.

One day -- one slow day while he is still observing Hux -- Kylo disrupts the communications network on the  _ Finalizer _ , just to see what Hux will do. He's been playing with Hux lately, experimenting to see exactly how many similarities Hux shares with that doomed garden cat. He can't decide afterwards, when the thunder of troopers running around the ship has quietened, whether he is disappointed or pleased with his results. True to form, Hux doesn't panic. He stands at his usual post on his bridge and glares at Kylo's lurking figure as soon as the alarm goes off, like he knows exactly what game Kylo's amusing himself with.

The objective hadn't been to make him panic though; it was to attempt forced deviation. If Kylo had characteristically sliced through some of the auxiliary lines that would be Hux's first ten ports of call according to any First Order manual, then that serves to make his experiment all the more entertaining. With all handbook contingencies unavailable to him, Kylo hoped that Hux would be forced to deviate.

Unfortunately, Kylo underestimated just how many alternate practice drills General Hux could hammer into his troopers' heads before Kylo’s arrival. Hux sighs exaggeratedly over his padded shoulder at Kylo's shadowed corner, like he wants to say something sassy but  _ Kylo _ is beneath him. Unworthy of  _ his _ words. (Hux's favourite ration packs all self destruct that night, though, and Kylo's rage returns to its everyday, comforting simmer because equilibrium has been restored.)

"Defer to action plan M-Delta-1-7," Hux says instead to whichever nameless officer hovers at his shoulder, waiting for The Plan. 

On the one hand, Kylo is pleased he managed to drive Hux all the way to M, because he'd bet Vader's scorched helmet Hux alphabetises even his contingency plans, and he's never heard him go past G even in the heat of the few space battles he’s seen Hux maneuvering (training exercise or legitimate). 

On the other, the little thrill of  _ something _ that niggles at him as he watches Hux shine with a brutal, undeniable competence is annoying and unacceptable.

  
Maybe, he allows later while Hux takes the brunt of the Supreme Leader’s anger without batting an eyelid, Hux holds some other spark of strength that Kylo isn’t familiar with.

**Author's Note:**

> Did I do okay?


End file.
